A Thai activist critical of the country’s monarchy claims he recently received explicit photos of the King of Thailand’s mistress and shared some of the photos with the UK’s Daily Mail on Wednesday.
Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a Thai academic and royal critic, told the newspaper that he received 1,443 images on an SD card from an anonymous source in August, accompanied by a letter claiming the photos were hacked from the phone of the Thai King’s mistress, Sineenat “Koi” Wongvajirapakdi.
Pavin, who is currently based in Japan, said he received the anonymous envelope in the mail in late August and that it was postmarked from France. Nearly all of the photos were “selfies,” according to Pavin, who added that some were taken in what appears to be a bathroom or car. Some of the photos allegedly show the subject “completely naked” and showing “every single thing that you could imagine,” according to Pavin, but he said he has chosen not to publish these explicit photos.
Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s official consort, Sineenat was recently reinstated to the role following a tumultuous turn of events over the past year. The Thai monarchy officially gifted Sineenat the title of “chao khun phra,” or royal noble consort, on the occasion of the king’s 67th birthday in July 2019. It marked the first time in nearly a century that a Thai monarch had officially taken a consort and came just two months after the Thai King married his fourth wife, Queen Suthida.
Less than three months later, the King issued a command rescinding Sineenat’s appointment as royal consort in October 2019. In a statement, King Vajiralongkorn accused his mistress of “misbehavior and disloyalty against the monarch.”
He said Sineenat had been “ambitious” and tried to “elevate herself to the same state as the queen.”
Sineenat had allegedly “shown resistance and pressure in every manner to stop the appointment of the Queen” ahead of her coronation in May 2019.
The king reportedly sent Sineenat to a women’s prison in Bangkok shortly after stripping her of the royal consort title.
By August of this year, however, King Vajiralongkorn seemed to experience a change of heart: he ordered Sineenat to be released from prison and fully restored her royal title and privileges as his top mistress.
The SD cards allegedly containing explicit photos of Sineenat were mailed to various Thai monarch critics, including Pavin, shortly after her release from prison.
Pavin suggested to the Daily Mail on Wednesday that the hacker may have “waited for the moment to leak it,” adding that it was “quite timely” that they were sent out in August just as Sineenat’s royal image was being rehabilitated.
“It’s hard to believe it’s a coincidence,” Pavin said. He further suggested that the leak may have come from within Queen Suthida’s entourage.
According to Pavin, the SD card of photos was mailed to him along with “an unsigned letter” in which the anonymous sender “described the photos as top-secret files hacked from Sineenat’s phone after it was confiscated following her arrest in October 2019 and expulsion by King Maha Vajiralongkorn. “
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